Weekly Workout Round-Up: The Start of Summer!

This week has just whipped past. I have no idea how it went so fast when I have done not very much other than my normal running schedule and my work. In addition to my job here and my blog, I also have to do a project for university back home so I have been doing a lot of reading and research on that. If anyone has any brilliant scholarly articles on the presentation of the female in Chilean queer writing, please hit me up! This has just involved a lot of sitting in cafes and libraries and reading, which is pretty much how I like to spend my days anyway, so no complaints from over here.

My workouts have all gone really well this week though, and I’m so happy that I got through this heavy week of running. I think it’s the second highest mileage I’ve ever done in a single week, and even looking at the number I struggle to comprehend how exactly I’m doing it. Next week is going to be slightly more complicated as my parents are back from their adventure in Patagonia and are visiting me here in Santiago for 4 days before flying home. We’ve planned a lot of day trips, which means I might struggle to fit in all of my workouts. Some of them will be hiking and they’ll all involve a lot of exploring and walking so I’m not too worried about the missed miles. But I have also decided to move my long run (“only” 15 miles) to Wednesday this week, as then I know I will fit it in before the weekend gets busy.

The only other thing of note is that it’s getting hotter here! Recently the days have been cloudless and in the high 20s Celsius, so around 80 F, and the sun here is super strong from being at a fairly high altitude. This has made me plan my runs more carefully in terms of timing, getting up earlier to fit in my long runs before it gets really hot out. I’m not comfortable enough in this city to run alone in the dark, so I still wait until its around 6.30 or 7am to get out but I can see this getting much earlier in the coming weeks as the days get longer! Not complaining though, it’s just a bit bizarre to see so much stuff about fall and the coming winter and (gasp!) even Christmas, and here I’m just chilling and getting a tan.

MONDAY: 7 miles EASY, circuits!

Monday morning was an easy 4 miles after the 18 the day before. It was easy effort, but pace was a lot faster than I expected – probably because my brain was just happy about having way fewer miles to battle through. In the evening, I ran the mile to running club then got surprised by circuits again… We ran to warm up and to cool down, as well as for recovery in between sets. It was probably more than 2 miles total but I decided to be conservative as I didn’t have my tracker on.

TUESDAY: 90 mins strength

I hadn’t been to the gym all of the previous week, and really missed my normal “picking up heavy things and putting them down again” sessions. This was a 60-minute barbell session, working on technique, and then a 30 minute ab circuit, just for some more fun. Nothing too heavy, but it was great to be back.

WEDNESDAY: 12 miles TEMPO / HILLS

Haha. Ha. Ha. This should have been a terrible day, but surprisingly wasn’t. I had 9 miles on the plan, so ran 7.5 up the big hill near me in the morning, thinking that running club would be circuits again so I wanted to get most of my miles in beforehand. HOWEVER, coach surprised us with a tempo session! 1x1000m to warm-up, plus sprinting drills. Then, 6x1000m at 8:00 mile pace, which isn’t actually too fast but my legs were slightly complaining by the end! It was really fun though, and it pushed me out of my comfort zone more than circuits would have done. One of my friends also told me about a 10km race which was happening in the centre of the city on Sunday, and persuaded me that I should use the 10km as extra motivation for the 6 miles at the end of my 20 mile run…

THURSDAY: 3 miles EASY

I had a forum in the morning for work, and then procrastinated all afternoon (telling myself it was too hot outside to run but actually just too comfortable watching YouTube videos) so these were sunset miles at a very easy pace. The sunset was beautiful though, turning the sky a perfect shade of pink, so I’m glad I ended up delaying my run until the evening.

FRIDAY: 4 miles TEMPO, 60 mins STRENGTH

Back to the gym to make the most of my membership! Because of my increased mileage on Wednesday, I didn’t do the whole 7 miles stipulated by the plan. I was already risking things going from a 39 mile week to a 46 mile week and didn’t want to push things further than that. I hopped on the treadmill for the first time in 2 weeks, which was very bizarre. I’d walked to the gym so felt fairly warmed up, so did 400m up then 5x800m speed pyramid between 8:00/mile and 7:25/mile, with 400m recovery jogs in between, which was harder than it should have been. Then did some more barbell strength work, including back squats, split squats, bench presses and barbell rows.

SATURDAY: REST DAY!

This was a nice lie-in and chilled day, although I did also have to go and pick up my race kit for the next day at a mall around 2.5 miles away from me. I walked there and back, but got very lost on the way back because I decided to explore around the area where there are loads of cute cafes and restaurants. My Google Maps quit on me so I’m not exactly sure where I went but I ended up doing a lot more walking in the hot hot sun than I had planned! Not ideal the day before a 20-mile run, but I definitely got my steps in and it was a great way of seeing a bit more of the city.

SUNDAY: 20 miles LONG, 20 mins STRENGTH

I’m going to write a longer blog post on this race / long run day, simply because I thought I’d planned it all really well, and it’s one of the best examples of what happens when everything goes slightly awry and plans slightly fail (edit: that recap can now be found here). I did it though! All the miles 😊 This is the longest single run I’ve done in a long time and apart from feeling achey in my legs now and sleepy from the early wake-up, it was pretty great! Having the race meant I had something to think about during the first part of the run, and since I woke up so early to fit in the miles before the race started I was alone on the riverside trails for at least the first hour, with views of the sunrise over the mountains and skyscrapers. I’m planning on doing 20 mins of ab work later tonight, along with some stretches to loosen me up before another week starts tomorrow.

Me in my stunning pink t-shirt

yep the sky really was that blue – due to the very strong sun!

And that’s my week! I was a bit more active on the blog this week, publishing 3 posts:

A recipe for my best brownies!! Following the previous post, I wanted to share a recipe for something I fall back to baking in hard times, in good times, in birthday times and revision times.

As has become normal in the past few weeks, I’m linking up with Tricia from MissSippinPiddlin and Holly from HoHoRuns for their Weekly Wrap. There are normally over 40 bloggers who participate, and I’m always excited to read the wide variety of posts. It’s definitely a good source of reading material during the week!

I know this was a super long post, so thanks for making it all the way down here! Have you ever fitted a race into your long run? Oh and also, something I’ve been wondering: do you like this kind of detail, or do you prefer shorter “round-up” posts? I’d love your feedback so I can continue to improve my blog! Have a great week 😊

4 thoughts on “Weekly Workout Round-Up: The Start of Summer!”

Great job! That is a high mileage week. When hubs and I marathon train we usually fit a lot of half marathons in as training runs and run the extra mileage before the race starts. That way, we are guaranteed to get the mileage completed for the day. Keep up the strong work!

I hope you enjoy spending time with your parents this week! I think you’ll find a way to fit it all in, especially since you are running long on Wednesday. I’ve always liked to bake and those brownies look delicious. Great job on getting in 20 miles, including a race! Thanks for linking.

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About me!

Hi, I’m Izzy! I’m a 20 year-old student at the University of Cambridge, focussed on being the fittest and healthiest possible. To find out more about my journey, click the ABOUT ME link at the top of the page. Otherwise, enjoy exploring my blog!